E-mail has been existence for at least 10 years now, providing a rapid, low-cost means of documented, non-interactive communications to businesses and individuals. It is particularly useful in that it provides a record of date and time of transmission and receipt as well as the contents of any message. E-mail is also useful in that it can be sent to multiple recipients at once and does not require an immediate, interactive reply. Thus e-mail can be very useful in a marketing context for presenting graphical and even video presentations to large numbers of individuals at once, for a later, considered response.
A present weakness in e-mail systems at present is that there are few comprehensive directories of e-mail addresses. While e-mail addresses are generally included in advertisements for business concerns, e-mail addresses for individuals are not commonly available unless volunteered by the individuals. As we are increasingly a society tied to our automobiles, the present invention provides a means to identify e-mail addresses related to vehicle license plates.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a means to provide a means to send an e-mail to a recipient based upon the license plate number of the recipient's vehicle. It is a further objective to an online location at which individuals desiring to have an e-mail address corresponding to their license plate number can register for such an address. It is a still further objective of the invention to online mailboxes in which the owner's of e-mail addresses associated with their vehicle license plates may receive e-mail directed to them. It is yet a further objective to provide identifying stickers or decals for vehicles identifying a driver as an individual whose license plate corresponds to his or her e-mail address.
While some of the objectives of the present invention are disclosed in the prior art, none of the inventions found include all of the requirements identified.